Coronis: Miranda Part Two
by melihobbit
Summary: Deep in the heart of a ruined space station the Red Dwarf crew will uncover something that could change the fate of the girl they saved... but it will cost one of them their lives.
1. Prologue The Dream

**CORONIS: Miranda Part Two**

**A/N:** As the title states, this is the sequel to Miranda. For those who haven't read it, it's not absolutely vital to understanding this story, but it would sure help you enjoy it a lot more ;) But that's up to you. If you don't want to then here's a quick synopsis of the first story.

**Synopsis:** On a desert planet the Dwarf crew saved a girl called Miranda (a hard-light hologram) from ghostlike entities she called 'Eaters'. The only way to save her was to switch off her holo-disk and bring it back to Red Dwarf. Before turning her off for the final time Lister promised to find a way to bring her back for good.

This story takes place a few weeks after they switched off Miranda.

* * *

**PROLOGUE: The dream.**

They stood facing each other across an infinity of white light, that surrounded everything and glowed brightest where it framed her silhouette. Dave Lister tried to move but he couldn't, he was frozen to the spot. He couldn't even reach out an arm. He tried to call out to her but there was no sound. Time seemed to have stopped in this vast white cathedral of light. The only noise he could hear was a low, faint rushing in his ears, like the sound of the sea crashing onto a distant shore.

She walked towards the light, to the core of it where it glowed brightest. It fanned around her in gentle beams, like sun streaming through a cloud. Then she stopped and turned back.

She had tears in her eyes. They looked like green opals, flecked with blue, and they were so clear he could almost see himself in them, even though he was standing metres away. She just stared at him and her eyes were immeasurably sad, and so full of fear that it hurt his heart. The light glinted in her tears and they glittered like jewels on her cheek.

Then she turned away and walked into the light. It grew impossibly bright, fanned out more brilliantly for a moment, and then it swallowed her.

And Dave knew she was dead.

He opened his mouth in a voiceless scream.

* * *

His eyes snapped open and he stared, uncomprehendingly, at the curved metal ceiling of his bunk recess. He examined the rivets in the wall as his heart slowed down and the cold sweat on his forehead dried. It was the third time he had had the same dream. The third time in a week. He felt like he might be going mad. He wondered if he had cried out this time and decided he hadn't. Rimmer hadn't woken up and started shouting at him to "shut up, shut up for smeg's sake!"

Which he had done on the previous two occasions.

With a soft groan, Lister turned over onto his side and stared hard at the wall, willed himself not to sleep and waited until morning.


	2. Feeling Blue

**Chapter 1: Feeling Blue**

_Red Dwarf _sailed slowly past a small meteorite, which drifted close to its side. Beside it an immense wall of red metal stretched off into the far distance. The rock was almost exactly level with the top of the 'E' in RED. For a few long, languid seconds the rock rolled alongside it, slowly spinning. Then the ship glided silently past leaving the rock in its wake, a graceful red monolith. The rock and the ship parted ways and drifted off different ways into the endless night.

* * *

Lister sat in the drive room, his hands cupped to his cheeks, elbows leaning on the console. His hat was pulled unevenly over his brown locks, which stuck out spikily over the collar of his black leather jacket. His eyes were dull and unfocused. On the console beside him sat a cup of cold coffee and an ashtray with a lonely cigarette butt sticking out of it. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps.

"There you are," Rimmer said distractedly as he marched into the drive room. "You should be in the docking bay helping Kryten and Cat load up Starbug." He walked past Lister to one of the computer readouts. The computer-generated grease in his hair, failing to smooth down his unmanageable curls, gleamed under the bright fluorescent lights. As usual he was wearing his red soft-light uniform. After bending over the computer he stopped, had a thought and straightened up. "You didn't forget, did you? We're going to check out that moon Holly sighted yesterday. She says it might have organic life."

"Yeah. Whatever," Lister mumbled through the half of his mouth that wasn't obscured by his palm. His other hand was absently torturing the cigarette butt by stabbing it against the bottom of the ashtray.

Rimmer looked at him askance. "Organic life. Meaning, possibly, something to supplement our meagre diet. Or in your case, something extra to garnish your vindaloo with. I thought you'd be excited."

"Yeah, sure," Lister muttered with a supreme lack of enthusiasm.

Rimmer looked at him more closely, and then noticed the ashtray. He stared at it. "You've started smoking again."

"So?"

"I thought you'd stopped."

"I just felt like it, ok? Anyway, I only stopped because it drove _you_ crazy."

Rimmer registered the confrontational tone in his voice. He folded his arms. "You're very cheery today. Still moping, are you?"

"Smeg off, Rimmer," Lister replied, without raising his head from his hands.

"Frankly, it's beginning to get on my nerves."

"Gee, sorry. I don't want to be _insensitive_ or anythin'," Lister bit back at him.

"You still think we're going to find a way to restore Miranda, don't you?"

Lister was silent. He continued stabbing the cigarette.

"Lister, there's _nothing_ out there," Rimmer said, gesturing emphatically at the window. "There's _nobody_ out there. No-one except us."

"What about the _Enlightenment_?" Lister defended.

"We won't find it again."

"We might! There might be others, you don't know!"

Rimmer just shook his head, sadly. "See? See what it's doing to you? Feeling sorry for yourself, hoping against all odds that some magical solution will present itself." He shook his head again. "Well I'm sorry to say it, Lister, but if that's living in hope, you're better off forgetting about her altogether." He turned away and faced the window.

Lister stared at him in angry disbelief. "How can you say that? You're actin' like... like you don't even _want_ her back!"

His face darkened. "Of course I do."

"Well you've got a weird way of showin' it," Lister snapped.

"Lister, I just fail to see how mooching around all day, staring into the dregs of last night's coffee and polluting your lungs with stale smoke is going to help you get on with your life."

"Have you ever thought of being a motivational speaker, Rimmer?" Lister said with bitter sarcasm.

There was a brooding, stormy silence. Finally Rimmer whirled around. "Do you think it's going to get any easier, Lister? It won't. And if you go on like this, you'll drive yourself _and everyone else _mad."

"You haven't exactly been easy to live with either, you know!" Lister shouted. "Ever since we turned her off!"

Ignoring him, Rimmer pressed on. "You had that dream again, didn't you? You're obsessed. Honestly, the way you're carrying on, anyone would think you were in love," Rimmer said in disgust. Then he paused, and looked hard at him. "Are you?"

"No, 'course not." He replied, voice prickling with anger. "It's just... I never had a sister. I didn't know her very well, but... I dunno... somethin' about her felt right. She seemed to _fit _with usyou know? I wanted to get to know 'er. I wanted to find out what stuff she liked, what... what she wanted to be... I wanted to ask her all those things. I never got a chance." His face slumped. "She just felt _right, _here."

There was another lengthy silence. Rimmer's face was impassive but his eyes glinted acidly. "So what are you saying? You want to turn her back on?"

Lister frowned to protest, then thought about it, and shrugged. "Yeah. I guess so."

Rimmer nodded slowly. "I see. For how long? A few hours? A day? A week? What kind of a life is that? Or would you rather leave her on permanently?"

"Don't start that again."

"Well, _what _than? Come on Lister, you're the one who suggested it! What kind of a life is it, a few hours each week and then she gets switched off again? It wouldn't be fair on her, or quite frankly, _me_ either."

"It's always about _you, _isn't it?" Lister said, his temper boiling up to the surface again. "Can't you ever think about someone else?"

Rimmer's eyes widened and he laughed, breathlessly, in disbelief. "Look who's talking! Mr Selfish! You're the one who wants to turn her on again for a few hours, just to make yourself feel better!"

Abruptly, Lister shoved his chair away from the console. It rolled soundlessly along the floor. He stood up. "I've 'ad enough of this. I need to be on me own." He headed out the door.

"Where are you going?" Rimmer snapped as he watched Lister walk out.

"_Anywhere, _as long as it's not here." He went off up the corridor towards the service lifts.

"What about the scouting mission? We're leaving in half an hour!" Rimmer jogged over to the door and leaned out.

"Go without me," Lister called over his shoulder.

"Oh, great. Marvellous plan, Listy. How are we going to carry the equipment? The Cat's useless, he won't do any of the heavy work."

"How hard can it be to carry a few gardening implements? Look, do what you like, I don't care. Think of something. I'm getting off this ship. I'm takin' Blue Midget."

"What? Lister... Lister don't be stupid!"

He had to shout to make his voice carry down to the far end of the corridor, which Lister was now leaving. For a moment he hovered in the door, face scrunched into an angry scowl, then whipped around and stalked over to the computer monitor.

"Holly," he barked to the blank screen. After a short delay, Holly's blonde head appeared, looking slightly affronted. She blinked and frowned at him.

"Alright, I'm here, there's no need to shout."

"I want you to engage Red Dwarf's autopilot."

"I suppose I can manage that," she said grudgingly.

"And convert me to hard-light."

"Anything else?"

"Just _do_ it."

A few seconds later, Rimmer's image flashed and then reappeared, dressed in a fresh blue uniform.

"Good," Rimmer snapped. "We're taking Starbug. Lister's gone off on his own. I don't know where or for how long." He turned and left the room.

Holly watched him leave. "A 'thank you' might have been nice." She rolled her eyes and winked off. The screen went black.


	3. Solitude

**CHAPTER 3: Solitude**

Starbug descended slowly into a small valley that snaked its way through the mountains on the moon's surface. The ground was dotted with spiky boulders and the Cat had some difficulty finding a place to extend the landing stanchions, but after a few wobbly minutes they touched down noiselessly on the ground. The airlock in Starbug's green hull zipped open and two figures stepped out. One was Kryten, holding a large and sensitive piece of equipment used for testing the chemicals in the planet's soil. The other was the Cat, impeccably dressed, as usual, in his specially tailored gold spacesuit. He peered out of the two-foot high helmet and scanned the landscape. "This place looks deader than denim overalls. Are you sure there's life here?"

"According to the Psi-scan, there should be some organic life, sir."

They walked down the landing ramp and stepped onto the soil.

Back onboard the 'bug, Rimmer watched them silently through the viewscreen.

* * *

Lister swivelled around in his chair Blue Midget's cramped cockpit, his deerstalker resting on his lap, and rubbed his temples with both hands.

He had taken Blue Midget and left Red Dwarf through the cargo bay doors. Kryten and Cat had still been loading up storage containers into Starbug, and Kryten, predictably, had tried to convince him not to go.

"Surely, sir, you and Mr Rimmer can work it out. It can't be that bad."

"It's not about _him," _Lister had grunted. "It's about everything. This whole ship. I just need to get off it. I need to be on my own. Don't try to stop me, Kryts."

Kryten had given up and walked away, despondent.

Now Lister wondered just what the point of the whole exercise had been. He glanced around the tiny, circular cockpit and swivelled nervously in his chair. He had forgotten how cramped the space was in Blue Midget. How claustrophobic. He had wanted some time to think, that's all. To think of a way... to think of a way to... _bring Miranda back._

He let his breath out through his teeth and lit up another cigarette. "What am I doin'?" He mumbled around the cigarette, as he shook the lighter closed. He took a deep drag and ran his hand over his forehead.

He swivelled around a bit more in the chair, thinking hard.

When nothing came, he sighed and looked around for something to do. There was his guitar, sitting down beside the console. He picked it up and let his fingers run gently over the strings. He picked off a few chords, which rang out tunelessly, splitting the air.

Suddenly the ship's comm blinked on and Rimmer's dour, hologramatic face appeared.

"I hope you're watching how much fuel you've got left," he said, his voice given an electronic ring by the intercom.

Lister was startled into a jerk that sent his hat tumbling onto the floor. He glared at the monitor. "Rimmer I said I wanted some privacy!"

"Well I'm just saying, if you run out fuel, it's your own damn smegging fault."

"Will you just leave me alone?"

"It's our fuel too, Lister. It's not just for you to waste, joyriding. And if Blue Midget's empty the next time someone needs it, let it be on your head."

Lister leaned close to the monitor. "I came out here to get _away_ from you, Rimmer." His hand fell on the intercom switch. "I'm turning off this frequency so you won't be able to get through."

Rimmer's brow creased. "Are you completely mad? We're on a scouting mission here. What if something happens and we need to contact you?"

"You'll just have to hope nothin' happens," Lister said smartly, and grabbed the switch.

Rimmer's face contracted in anger. "Lister you're a total, complete and utter total-"

He flicked the screen off, mercifully cutting out Rimmer's last words. Lister leaned back in his chair and looked dejectedly out the window.

There was nothing out there that he could see. No planets. Not even a meteor or a distant sun. Just the dense, never-ending blackness, and the tiny pinprick of distant stars. Lister's heart sunk into his stomach. _We're not gonna find a way, are we? There really is nothing out there._

He closed his eyes and covered his face with one hand.

_I'm sorry, kid. _

_Smeg._

_I'm so sorry._

He sat that way for a long time. His eyes stung for a while but he gritted his teeth and ignored them, and eventually they stopped.

Blue Midget cruised slowly forwards, its autopilot light flashing above the cockpit. Lister's face was illuminated by it. It flashed blue, washing him with its light, and then off again.

_I promised..._

Finally, he opened his eyes and dropped his hand away from his face, preparing to turn Blue Midget around and head back to Red Dwarf. Whenever he tried to find a possibility of restoring Miranda, his mind came up blank. Maybe it was time to accept that he had failed, that there was no saving her. She was gone.

As his hands reached for the controls, he froze. Something huge was filling the viewport window. He raised his eyes and a soft exclamation of surprise left his lips.

"What... the... smeh...ging...?"

* * *

**A/N:** Ooh, the suspense :P lol. Sorry, the angsty chapters are out of the way, some real action will start soon, don't worry! 


	4. Into the Station

**CHAPTER 3: Into The Station**

Rimmer sat relaxing in the cockpit of Starbug, his hands clasped behind his head, watching Kryten and Cat through the window. On the uneven slope of ground below him, they were setting up Kryten's equipment in the moon's soil. Kryten's voice crackled through the microphone.

"Mr Rimmer sir, you could be of some assistance to us out here."

"I'm sure you have it all under control, Kryten," he said calmly. "Besides, someone's got to keep the engines running, just in case you run into any trouble." He smiled and added hastily, "Which I'm sure you won't, of course."

Kryten grunted as he tried to force the long, tubular device into the soil. The Cat, with nothing else to do, tried vainly to help by stomping on it with his boot.

"Sir, that is _not_ helping."

"Hey, I think you've got it upside down. Isn't that sticky out bit meant to go at the top?" The Cat said with disdain, and nudged it with his foot.

"This is a very..._uhhrghh_... valuable... _mmmmff_... piece of equipment. Stop kicking it!" The Cat stood back, offended, and crossed his arms over his chest. "And I think I know a little more about spectrophotometers than you do, thank you very much!"

"Spectro-what-o-meters? Hey, I thought we were lookin' for food! Why don't I just _smell _out the damn stuff?"

"Well sir, _one: _because you're wearing an airtight helmet and _two: _this is the real doozy; I hardly think your nose is going to be more efficient than an extremely expensive and sensitive piece of high-tech equipment."

"What are you tryin' to say, circuit board brain? My nose isn't up to scratch?" The Cat stared angrily at Kryten through his helmet.

Rimmer leaned into the microphone impatiently and cleared his throat. "Is this going to take all day, chaps?"

Before they could reply, the comm screen on the central control panel burst into life. Lister's face filled it.

"-ou've got to smegging see this! It's incredible! It's... it's huge! It's the size of Red Dwarf! Maybe bigger!"

"Lister what are you gibbering about?" Rimmer said angrily. Lister's eyes were wide and excited, and he kept glancing off to the side of the screen as if looking at something out the window. He shook his head and laughed in disbelief.

"I'm tellin' you man, this is amazing! One minute there was nothin', just space, then I looked out the window and there it was!"

"There _what _was?" Rimmer snapped, quickly losing his patience.

"Some kind of space station. It's _massive._ We're talking _huge!_ And there are lights on in there!" He grinned excitedly into the monitor. "_Lights!"_

"A derelict?" Rimmer asked quickly, running over to the long-range scanner.

"Dunno... it seems in pretty good shape...looks like there's some structural damage around the other side... but I can't tell for sure. Not 'till I get close."

"There's nothing on the long-range scan. It must be using some kind of cloaking device, making it invisible from a distance, and undetectable to radar. What're your coordinates?"

"Hang on." Lister bent over to the left of the screen and tapped some buttons. "Just transmitting now."

Rimmer watched his screen as the coordinates flashed up on the radar, pinpointed by a small red blip. "Alright... stay where you are. We're going to come to you. Don't _move, _don't touch anything, understand?"

"Yes sir," Lister sarcastically, and flipped him a mock Rimmer salute.

"I mean it." He reached over and flicked off the monitor, and changed it back to Kryten's frequency. "Kryten, Cat, pack up the soil samples and get back on board. Lister's spotted something big. Might be a derelict but there seems to be life on board."

"We're leaving?" The Cat's voice crackled over the intercom. "Already? Do you know how long it took me to get ready?"

Rimmer grasped the microphone and said loudly, "Kryten, just get his shiny gold ass up here. We're taking off!"

"Yes, Mr Rimmer sir." Kryten despondently began packing up his equipment. Reluctantly, the Cat bent over and helped him dig out the device.

* * *

Kryten, Cat and Rimmer stared dumbstruck through the viewport window as they cruised up behind Blue Midget. Beyond it, the gigantic structure filled half of the sky, its countless windows blinking and glittering like tiny fireflies. Its hull was pale grey, and very smooth. From this angle it was vaguely shaped like a spinning top, with many rounded protrusions and openings. Circling it was a kind of halo, a circlet of metal ringed with thousands of blue lights that blinked on and off in synchronization.

Lister grinned at them through Starbug's comm screen. "Nice, eh? Not a bad day's work for a bit of joyriding." He directed this at Rimmer, who merely gaped out the window with jaw hanging open.

"It's gigantic!" He breathed. "Incredible! The technology... the sophistication for creating something like this, it's... it's inconceivable!"

"Well, what are we waiting for?" The Cat grinned excitedly. "Let's knock on the door and see if anyone's home!"

"Yeah, but where's the _door?_" Lister asked.

Rimmer left his seat and moved up to the front of the cockpit. His eyes scanned the construction. "There. Looks like a docking bay," he said, and pointed. They noticed a large opening towards the bottom of the structure, ringed with red lights.

Kryten looked at the comm screen. "Would you like to do the honours, sir?"

Lister nodded, reached out of shot and crammed his hat back on his head. "You bet. Follow me in."

* * *

_NIL HOMINI CERTUM EST_

These were the words mounted elegantly above the huge corridor leading off the docking bay. The interior was much the same as the outside- clinical, grey and almost featureless, with smoothly curved walls. The docking bay itself was fairly small but seemed to be linked up to a network of bays running the circumference of the ship. There were no other vehicles occupying the area. Narrow, oblong windows ran the length of the room and through them they could see into the adjacent bays, which also seemed empty. A huge wide door, glass fronted, with smoothly rounded edges led deeper into the facility. It seemed to be a kind of high-tech airlock. It was this room that Dave Lister stood outside, looking up at the bold, somehow stark block letters.

"'Nothing is certain for man'."

Lister glanced over his shoulder. Kryten had stepped up behind him and was studying the letters. "Latin, sir."

Rimmer walked over to join them. He was free to walk about unhelmeted, as was Kryten, because he was a hologram and had no need for oxygen. Lister and the Cat had put on their spacesuits. The Cat was still wandering around the docking bay, looking around curiously.

"Latin?" Lister said. "So humans built this place?"

"What's that chaps?" Rimmer asked, just catching up with the conversation.

"I was just explaining to Mr Lister what the words mean..."

"Ah yes, Latin isn't it?"

"Yes sir, that's what I..."

"'Zero person is convinced?' I wonder what they meant by that."

"Well... that's close enough I suppose, sir."

Lister stepped close to the doors and they slid open soundlessly. He glanced back at the others. "Let's see who's home." Kryten and Rimmer followed him into the room. It was closed at the other side by a second door, the inner airlock. Cat, realizing he had been left behind, waltzed over to join them.

As soon as they were all inside and gathered in the middle of the room, the door slipped closed, gave a soft _thunk_, and they heard the sound of escaping air. A few seconds later the inner door, on which was painted a large blue number 54, slid open.

Beyond was a wide, white corridor. The floor was polished metal and gleamed brightly, reflecting the ceiling. The corridor led around a corner, obscuring their view of whatever lay beyond. A single long bulb spanned the length of the wall. It blinked on and off randomly, casting the hall alternately in stark white light and then shadow. There was a constant low, electronic buzz permeating the air.

Somehow just the sight of the faulty bulb gave Lister a feeling of unease. Something wasn't right here. On a ship this size, that must have a crew the population of a small country, you'd think someone would be able to change a faulty light bulb. Unbidden, an almost overwhelming sense of dread slipped over him. He had an urge to simply turn and head back to Starbug, leaving this place, and whatever secrets it held, behind forever. Let it be swallowed back up by deep space and be forgotten.

But the feeling lasted only a second or two, and then slowly ebbed away. Lister felt almost embarrassed by the extreme reaction. He glanced at the faces of the others. They seemed to have the same sense of trepidation, but Lister finally, indomitably, broke the spell by stepping forward.

And after only that slight momentary hesitation, they followed.


	5. Ghost Ship

**CHAPTER 4: Ghost Ship**

They followed the corridor along to a T-junction, where at the crossbar of the 'T' a watercooler stood next to a strange cactus-like leafy plant. Behind the watercooler an emblem was painted onto the wall. Lister stepped closer to have a look, and kicked something that lightly skidded across the floor.

It was a plastic cup. It rolled over, slowly, and then stopped. In its trail was a puddle of water, from where the cup had apparently been dropped. Lister realised he was standing in it. He stepped out of the puddle and picked up the cup, turned it over thoughtfully, and sat it beside the watercooler. Then he took a closer look at the design.

A double circle contained the word 'GENESIS'. Underneath, around the lower rim was that phrase again: 'NIL HOMINI CERTUM EST'. In the centre of the circle, the top half of planet Earth was visible. Above it, a tiny moon, and a majestic ship drifted in silhoutte. The word 'CORONIS' was just visible along its side. Stars dotted the background.

Kryten, Cat and Rimmer had moved ahead and were walking down the center of the T-junction, which appeared to open onto some kind of huge lobby. Their diminishing footsteps echoed slightly and bounced off the cold white walls.

Lister looked at the cup again, shrugged, and jogged off to catch up with the others. As he reached the room at the bottom of the 'T' he stopped in his tracks, and whistled softly.

"Check this place out," he said appreciatively, craning his neck up towards the ceiling. It was a huge, circular lobby. In the middle of the room two gleaming semi-circular desks faced away from each other, forming an oval. Blue lamps washed the desk in pools of light. Two staircases ascending from ground level climbed around the edges of the room, meeting at a long, wide landing, on which were a number of doors and an elevator. However, dominating the room was a scultpure on a plinth behind the desks on the first floor. Made of some golden metal, it reached above the second floor landing and almost touched the ceiling. Under the bright fluorescent lights ( which continued, even in here, to flicker on and off at random, casting them periodically into gloomy shadow), tiny planets gleamed like suns. Connecting each planet and holding it in suspension above the floor were very thin strands of metal. Each planet was connected to the base by one of these strands, forming the impression of a large golden flower, with each planet being one of its buds or leaves. It was a complete model of Earth's solar system.

"Incredible," Rimmer said, his neck crooked back so far his Adam's apple stuck out.

"An entire map of the solar system," Kryten observed.

"Yeah, this is great and all, but I have one question," the Cat said. "Is there any food around this place? 'Cos I'm starving."

"You're unbelievable, man!" Lister said incredulously. "Look where we _are! _How can you think about food?"

The Cat just stared at him.

"Forget I asked."

"Ok, look. I'm sorry to be the one to point it out to you, but it's pretty clear there's something very wrong here. Look around you. There's no sign of life. The electrics are all shot to hell. Whatever happened here, it wasn't very nice." Rimmer said.

"It's not just the lights, either," the Cat said ominously. "We passed some doors on the way. They were all screwed up. Opening and closing for no reason."

"I'll bet some major damage has been done to the security system and whatever controls the lights... and the air conditioning," Lister said morosely. "It's like a freezer in here." He crossed his arms and shivered.

"Right," Rimmer said. "So basically, this station is smegged. The question is, is it worth wandering around any longer? Is it even _safe?_."

"We've encountered no problems so far, I suggest we explore a little deeper into the complex," Kryten said calmly.

"Yeah, we're here now," Lister said. "We might as well make the best of it." He wandered over to the front-facing desk. On this too, the GENESIS emblem had been carved into the metallic surface of the desk.

Rimmer looked unsettled, but curiosity got the better of him."Well, where do we start? This place is huge."

"I'd like to look around in those docking bays," Lister said, heading back towards the junction.

"They all looked empty."

"Yeah, but you never know what you might find." He grinned at Rimmer over his shoulder.

* * *

They wandered down the corridor past the docking bays, following the slight curvature of the station. On further inspection, all the bays were empty. The sheer number of bays indicated that there had been a lot of flight traffic here, but when the station was abandoned, apparently all the vehicles had been taken.

Eventually they reached the last docking bay on the level, number 48. It, too, was empty, and the corridor ended in an airlock leading to another part of the station. There was a glass window set in the door.

As Lister, Rimmer and Kryten began to retrace their way back towards the lobby, feeling dejected, the Cat glanced through the circular window and saw a deep wall of blackness. He frowned, and pressed his face up to the glass.

It wasn't a wall.

It wasn't another part of the ship.

It wasn't completely black.

Stars shimmered in the distance. Immediately beyond the door, the station fell away onto open space. By pressing close to the glass he could see that half the station had been completely destroyed. Torn off in some massive explosion, or a series of explosions that had crumbled away most of the structure. Little twists of metal, shrapnel from the blast, rolled slowly past the window. Countless other bits of random debris drifted weightlessly in the black night. And looking along the side of the destroyed half the building, he could see into the rooms that were ripped open. Lights still blinked spasmodically in some, bathing the side of the station in light like some weird Christmas tree. The Cat pulled back just as an office chair drifted gracefully past the window.

"Uh... guys! You might wanna take a look at this!"

Rimmer, Kryten and Lister turned and wandered back to the airlock door, where Cat was standing.

"What?" Lister said, and Cat just nodded at the window. Lister pressed his face against it and peered out. A few seconds ticked by.

"Smeggin' _hell!"_

"What is it? Let me see," Rimmer said, roughly batting him aside. Lister just flopped against the wall, a stunned expression on his face.

"'Some structural damage', you said." He raised his eyebrows at Lister.

"Well I didn't see it from the back," Lister defended weakly. "What d'you think happened?"

"Well, at a rough guess, I'd say someone blew half the smegging ship away," Rimmer said curtly.

"I _mean _what kind of weapon could cause so much _damage?_ That kind firepower of makes Starbug's laser cannons look like the equivalent of a water pistol with no water in it."

"It was probably a fluke shot, or a very calculated and precise missile that destroyed some vital part of the ship... a ruptured engine or fuel canister, which produced a chain of explosions throughout the entire complex. My guess is that the central computer, or whatever passes for an AI aboard this vessel has been severely damaged."

"That would explain the dodgy lighting," Lister said.

"And the screwed up doors," the Cat ventured.

"Well... it's lucky for us the airtight doors are still working," Lister mused, "Or we'd all be people spaghetti by now." He and the Cat had removed their space helmets after entering the first airlock.

"Yes, they must be the only doors not controlled by the central computer. That, or someone locked them manually before the station was abandoned."

Lister went over to the glass again and peered through, surveying the wreckage. A glint of movement off the distant side of the station caught his eye.

"Wait... what's that?" He tried to point through the glass.

Kryten moved up beside him and blinked rapidly several times. "Just magnifying..." he fell silent and continued staring for a long moment. Then, slowly he turned away.

"Well what is it?" Rimmer asked.

"It's an escape pod. There was a number painted on the side. EEM043. Emergency Evacuation Module number 43." His angular, robotic features managed to convey a sense of deep despondency. "It looks like it was torn open by a missile."

Lister's eyes darted to each of his crewmates in turn, and then came back to rest on Kryten. "They were shot down as they were trying to escape?"

Kryten nodded, gloomily. "They would have been easy to pick off in the Escape Modules. They're very fast but impossible to control. They lock on to a pre-programmed destination and don't stop until they get there. There's no telling how many didn't make it."

"Oh man," Lister said softly, rubbing a hand over his forehead.

Rimmer shifted his feet and licked his lips nervously. "Kryten, about this chain reaction effect. Is there any chance that, perhaps, these explosions could start again in the near future?"

Kryten stared at the wall and seemed to think about it. "Well I suppose so, sir."

Rimmer nodded, and said, "ah."

"But it's very unlikely. If I'm right in assuming that this damage took place a few days ago, and not in the last few hours, then any small fires resulting from the initial blast should have burnt themselves out."

"So... we're not in any danger?"

"No, I don't believe so."

"Splendid." Rimmer visibly relaxed.

"Oh hey, check it out! I didn't see this before." The Cat had stepped up beside Lister and was looking out the window, his hands pressed to the glass. "There's half a ship down there." He turned back and grinned.

"What?" Rimmer craned his neck to see, but Lister had taken the Cat's place in front of the window.

"Oh, smeg, he's right!"

His eyes followed the line of the wreckage down to one of the lower levels. Something like a huge docking bay had been ripped in half, and from it protruded the blackened, twisted hull of an immense spacecraft. Its hull was once glimmering white, but had been darkened and warped by the explosion. Its protruding end was a knotted, twisted wreck. Lister couldn't see the rest of the craft as it was obscured by the walls of the docking bay, and it was impossible to tell which end of the ship he was looking at. But his eye caught something just between the wrecked, torn off end and the gleaming, undamaged bit that sat inside the bay.

A letter 'O'. He thought back to the emblem with the picture of a ship on it. What was it called?

_Coronis._

"Let's find it," he said, turning back to the others. An idea had formed inside his head. His eyes gleamed with renewed excitement. "Let's find that ship and take a look inside."

* * *

**A/N: **So many lovely reviews! You rock my socks! All of you!!! Hope you're still enjoying this, and aren't too bored with it yet. It gets more exciting, I promise. 


	6. Waking

**Chapter 5: Waking**

It took them half an hour to make their way down to the lower levels of the station. The elevators didn't work, so they had to find a stairwell and then try to navigate through the labyrinthine complex in the general direction of the docking bay. Lister had guessed it was about five floors underneath them. They wandered through medical and science departments, passing numerous offices. Here and there on the walls were schematics of the station's layout, which they used to judge the location of the docking bay.

Everywhere was evidence of a sudden evacuation. Glancing into offices as they passed they saw coffee cups abandoned on desks or spilt on the floor. Notebooks and files littered the doorways as if they had been abruptly dropped at the moment of the emergency. In one corridor, ominously, there sat a woman's high-heeled shoe. It lay over on its side, up against the wall as if it had fallen off and been kicked there.

Lister tried not to think what might have happened to the owner of that shoe.

Best not to do that.

After descending another staircase, they emerged into a wide, grey, carpeted hall. There were exposed pipes and metal grating on the ceiling. A yellow-and-black striped sign to their left read 'SHUTTLE BAY SW01'.

"I think we might be in the right place," Lister said. They followed the corridor along, passing a few closed doors, which seemed to be storage areas. Ahead of them, the corridor was shrouded mostly in darkness, but from the periodic flicker of the ceiling lights Lister could see a large, metal door with glass windows inset into it. As he watched it gave a series of hydraulic wheezes, slid halfway open, clunked, and slammed shut again. A few seconds later the process repeated itself. They approached the door. Beyond it was something like a control room, but Lister couldn't make out much except a panel of instruments and some chairs.

Rimmer looked doubtfully at the door. It gave another heavy _clunk-fsshhh_ and opened.

"Kryt, is there any way you can disable that door?" Lister said.

Kryten stepped up beside the door and examined the wall. There was a little panel there with some switches on it. He tried pressing the switches, but nothing happened.

"One moment sirs, I'll just see if I can override the automation..." He flipped off the panel's cover and began fiddling with some wires.

The doors suddenly jammed to a halt, leaving a small gap through which they could squeeze. Lister went through first, and the rest of them followed.

They stepped into the dark control room. Well, it would have been completely dark if not for the huge wall of glass through which light streamed from the cavernous shuttle bay. In the middle of the high-ceilinged bay, sitting on the floor which was a long distance below, the gleaming white vessel _Coronis_ filled the observation window. They could see only a third of it. It was so huge it seemed to span several separate bays that measured the length of the station. This was the back end of it. Thousands of portholes, unseeing eyes, glittered along its smooth hull. Just inside the huge doors that opened out onto the next bay, were the last two letters, 'I' and 'S', painted in a deep, startling red. This was the undamaged, pristine half of Coronis.

"That's it," Lister said. "That's the ship I saw on the design." He glanced eagerly at the others. "Let's see if we can find a way down."

"Lister, why are you so keen to see what's on that ship?" Rimmer asked, tapping his chin and eyeing him mistrustfully.

Lister shrugged. "Just curious. Clearly their technology's greater than ours... maybe there's something in there we can salvage." He deliberately avoided Rimmer's gaze, instead leaning out over the control panel to peer down into the room below, looking for doors. In truth, he only had a plan half-formed in his mind, and he didn't feel like sharing it with Rimmer right now. Not until he was sure.

* * *

They took a battery-operated lift from the control room down into the shuttle bay. From down here, the ship loomed high above their heads, making them feel like ants in comparison to it. A retractable staircase had been extended down onto the floor of the bay, from which they could gain access to the ship via an open airlock.

They climbed up into the ship and found themselves in a cargo area. Lister led the way, walking quickly, and the others had to jog to catch up with him.

"Hey! Slow down! What are you in such a hurry for?!" The Cat called.

They were now passing through the central part of the ship. Doors lined the way. Lister stopped and glanced at one. _Armoury, _it read. Nope, wrong place. Lister jogged on ahead.

He would have gone right past the room if Kryten hadn't stopped in front of it, looked in and said, "It's a Hologram Projection Unit!" In a fascinated voice.

Lister immediately stopped, spun around, and retraced his steps back to the door. "You're right." He glanced surreptitiously at Kryten and went inside.

Rimmer followed him in. The room was large and bright. The electrics on this part of the ship worked fine, and a bank of computer monitors circled the room, spewing out graphs and data. In the centre of the room stood the complicated-looking Hologram Unit.

"You were looking for this, weren't you?" Rimmer said quietly, walking around the room. The Cat entered behind Kryten and walked over to the device.

"Why would we want another one of these?"

"We don't want another one," Rimmer said impatiently.

Lister looked hopefully at Rimmer. "It's intact. It should still be working."

"No."

"Rimmer, we could bring her back!"

"No."

"Why not?" His voice rose angrily.

"Because we're in the middle of deep space on a derelict that might explode at any moment, and we _still_ don't have a way of bringing her back to Red Dwarf."

"But we could figure something out!" Lister shouted, and his voice sounded too loud in the quiet space. A computer beeped somnolently in the background. Lister sighed tiredly. "I'm doin' it. She deserves a chance to live."

"Aren't you forgetting something, sir?" Kryten said, confused. "Miss Miranda's holo-disk is still aboard Red Dwarf."

"No it isn't," Lister said guiltily, and, embarrassed, he reached down into his space suit and into the pocket of his jacket. He pulled out a shiny, flat disk.

Rimmer stared at it. "You were carrying it _around _with you?"

Awkwardly, Lister put the disk down next to the Holo Unit. "I know you'll think I'm crazy, but... when I walked past the Holo Unit, before I took Blue Midget, I just... picked it up." He stared moodily at the floor. "I must've put it in my pocket and forgot about it. I just wanted her to be near me, or something... I thought it might help me think..."

"Ok, ok. You're breakin' my heart here, bud. But can we just decide what to do and do it? This place is givin' me the heebie jeebies." The Cat looked at all of them impatiently.

Lister picked up the disk again and looked imploringly at Rimmer, who only shook his head sadly and turned away to face the wall. "You just better think of something," he said.

Lister looked down at the device. He searched a row of buttons, typed in the activation sequence and slid open the drive, placing the disk inside. He waited as her personal data was loaded into the computer.

He glanced once more at Kryten and the Cat before pressing 'initialize'.

"We will."

He pressed the button.

A girl materialized to their left, just beside Kryten. Her brown hair was messily tied behind her head in a ponytail. She wore a puffy grey vest with the insignia of her ship, _Poseidon, _sewn onto one arm, with a black turtleneck sweater underneath. Her shorts, made from the same grey material, covered black leggings. Grey and white boots reached up to her knees. Her face was pale and childlike, with a faint dusting of freckles on her cheekbones. Her eyes remained closed for a few seconds after she materialized.

Then they opened. She gasped, glancing around the unfamiliar room. Then she recognized Lister, and slowly relaxed. She smiled.

Lister felt as if a weight had been lifted from his heart. "Hey," he said softly.


	7. Seperation

**CHAPTER 6: Separation**

"Welcome back," Lister said, smiling.

"Where am I?" Her eyes slipped around the large, circular room. Then she noticed Rimmer, who had turned away from the wall and was watching her silently. Her eyes widened. "Rimmer? I thought… you were…" She paused, confused. "Aren't we on Red Dwarf anymore?"

"No," Lister shook his head. "You're on a ship called Coronis, we're docked inside a space station. Some kind of scientific research facility." He glanced at Kryten. "Actually we don't know a whole lot more than you. We just sort of stumbled across the place." He smiled apologetically and shared a brief, embarrassed glance with Rimmer.

Miranda stared at the Hologram Projection Unit. In the glow of the computer readouts, her eyes glowed a bright, incandescent green, and they were troubled. Realizing he should explain, Lister hastily continued.

"Ah… we found this working Holo Unit and…" He trailed off vaguely. "Well… with you not being here and all… that we could bring you back. Seeing as this one's working," he frowned at his awkward explanation, and then shrugged.

A gentle, heartfelt smile touched Miranda's face. "Thank you."

An emotional silence fell over the group. Rimmer stared hard at Lister. _If we have to turn her off again, _he thought, _it's going to break her heart._ Lister read the thought in his eyes and looked away guiltily. "We don't know how long you can… you know. But we're gonna have a look around. See if we can find a way to take you with us."

Still smiling, she nodded, and looked again at Rimmer. He took a deep breath, realizing it would be appropriate to say something, and said dully, "Welcome back," for a lack of anything better.

"Yeah, we missed you," the Cat said, grinning.

The smile faded from her face, but she looked genuinely touched. "Really?"

Kryten fidgeted awkwardly. "Of course we did, ma'am."

There was another long, awkward pause. Miranda suddenly became very interested in her shoes. Kryten stood stiffly, twiddling his fingers together. Eventually he cleared his throat and said, "Well we have a lot of the facility yet to explore, sirs-" he glanced quickly at Miranda "-and ma'am. Shouldn't we make a start?"

"Good. Yes. Let's make a start," Rimmer said in a stilted voice, and walked out the door.

* * *

The five of them crowded around the schematic of the station which was pinned to the wall. It showed a cross-section of the level they were on, with the rooms labelled and their current position highlighted in red. Kryten scanned the tiny labels, reading them.

"Molecular biology. Genetics. Nanotechnology. These are all labs on this level. This facility must have been used for some kind of genetics research."

Lister traced his finger across the tablet and paused on something. "Look at this. There's a symbol here marked 'Cloning Lab'." Eyebrows raised, he looked searchingly at Kryten. "It's on the level below us."

Kryten blinked as if realizing something. "Of course. Nanotechnology. They must have been developing new ways of combining molecular cloning with nanotechnology to create a kind of advanced cloning process. That or these labs were just a way of advancing their research, exploring different methods to achieve the same goal."

"Are you talking about human cloning?" Rimmer asked, looking from Kryten to Lister like an avid spectator at a tennis match.

"We've _got _to see these labs," Lister said excitedly, cradling his space helmet under one arm. "Do you know what this could mean? The people here… if they were the last humans… they must have been trying to clone themselves to stop the human race from dying!"

There was a heavy pause as this sunk in. Rimmer looked off into the distance, frowning.

Miranda looked curiously at Lister. "Where did they all go?"

The others stared at her in anguished silence. Finally Lister said, "We haven't found anyone alive yet. We think they're all dead."

Miranda's heart sunk into her stomach. She turned away, shocked. Lister found his voice again. "We have to see what's down there."

Kryten hesitated. "You go ahead, sir. I'd like to see if I can locate the main computer and try to figure out what happened here."

"What, you mean like black box recordings, security surveillance, that sort of thing?"

"Exactly."

Lister nodded. "Alright, we'll keep in contact with the headsets," he said, adjusting a small microphone pinned to the neck of his spacesuit If you see anything weird…" he trailed off. Kryten nodded, understanding him, and walked away down the corridor in the direction they had previously arrived from.

Lister glanced at the map again. "Ok, we're here now, so we need to go…" He glanced towards a branching corridor, and pointed. "That way."

* * *

Kryten slowly made his way through the seemingly endless sprawl of wide, grey corridors, found a maintenance shaft (the elevators were all non-operational), and began to climb. Below him he could hear the hollow rush of air and an electrical whirring. Steam spewed from a ventilation shaft about halfway down. The shaft was small and cylindrical, and the grey, curved walls were covered with access panels and hanging wires. Eventually he made it to the top and had to force his way through another locked door at the top.

He was now in the upper levels of the station, and approaching the central hub of the complex. Everything up here was more impressive. Surveillance cameras dotted the wide, shiny corridors, peeking down at him with blank robotic eyes. Computer readouts covered an entire wall of a large, circular room, with banks of computers running down the central aisles, their chairs now all empty and abandoned. Their screens would randomly flicker, or fill with rows of garbled green text, emitting a series of scrambled bleeps. The sounds combined to make an eerie clamour that followed Kryten through the walls as he walked deeper into the command centre.

He crossed through a large open area which was lit by pools of light from the few working light sources, and passed through a set of double glass doors which had jammed halfway open. The glass on both panels had been blown out and lay scattered across the floor. Kryten entered the darkened control room.

The room, like most of the architecture on the station, was smooth and circular. Large windows curved around the far wall, opening out onto a black expanse that was dotted with stars and debris from the wreckage. The central computer sat in the centre of the room, a large and complicated-looking dark grey structure, its sides covered in numerous screens, all now either dead or flicking out meaningless rows of jumbled data. Set into a deep recess in the front of the machine was a large monitor and keyboard.

Navigating by the dim light of the few working monitors, Kryten edged his way over to the keyboard, gave it a few experimental taps, and then went to work trying to repair it.

* * *

"Are those people?"

"Oh my god…" Rimmer said in a dazed voice, and took a hesitant step into the cavernous, darkened room.

"In-smeggin'-credible," Lister said, following up his own question. His eyes slipped around the enormous room, his brain barely comprehending what he was seeing. "I don't believe it."

They were in the cloning labs. The room was the size of a warehouse, and sitting in rows along its length were strange cylindrical machines, each attached to two pods lying on their backs like operating tables. Thick pipes connected the pods to the central machines, making them resemble weird flowers, the pods their petals. The machines gave off a fluorescent green light that bathed the immediate area in a spotlight, leaving the rest of the room in shadow. Inside the pods, Lister could make out human forms, their skin unnaturally white and hairless, wearing loose-fitting white hospital gowns. Several of the pods that Lister could see were empty. The machines here had clearly been victim to the same power disruption that had affected the rest of the station. One of the pods was slightly open, and some sort of greenish mist was seeping from it. Lister looked at it and shivered.

He had a strong feeling that none of the people in those pods were alive.

"Creepy," the Cat said softly, as he wandered further into the room, past the first pods. He approached the green mist, looking at it curiously.

"Cat, be careful," Lister warned.

The Cat swiped his hand through the mist and sniffed it. "It smells pretty bad."

"Stay away from it," Rimmer snapped. _"Nobody – touch – anything."_

Ignoring him, Cat walked around the side of the machine and peered through the glass lid of the pod. He tapped it lightly with his fist.

Rimmer glared at him. "Didn't I say not to touch anything? Am I invisible? Can anyone hear me?" He stalked over to the Cat. "We don't know what that stuff is. It could be some kind of poisonous gas."

"So what are you so concerned for?" The Cat snapped back. "It ain't gonna affect you, is it?"

"No, it won't. Thank you for reminding me." Rimmer said bitterly. His voice was strained and nervous.

Lister quietly approached one of the pods and peered in. He immediately flinched, and shrunk back from it with revulsion, letting out a soft cry of disgust. Miranda trotted up to him, about to look into the pod, but he threw out a hand to stop her.

"Don't. It's not pretty. I think the cloning pods malfunctioned and killed everyone inside them when the power started acting weird." Miranda slowly stepped back, staring at the pod with a kind of mingled curiosity and dread.

"This technology is incredible," Rimmer mumbled, gazing around the huge room.

"Yeah. And look at all the good it did 'em." Lister turned downheartedly away. He had lost all hope of finding anyone alive here. He really was the last human in the universe. Completely alone.

"So what really happened here?" The Cat asked quietly.

"I guess we'll never know. Not unless Kryten has any luck with the computer, which- judging by the state the rest of the place is in- is not very likely." Rimmer crossed his arms and began to wander down the rows of pods. Lister noticed a long glass wall on one side of the room and assumed it must be some kind of control room for the cloning bay. He walked over to it, with Miranda silently following.

"I still can't believe I'm here," he said, looking through the darkened glass window into the room beyond. "The last hope for humankind was this place... they built it to try to... _cheat_ evolution." He glanced despondently at the girl, whose dark eyes watched him in silence and sympathy. He slowly shook his head. "All this time I thought I was alone, but I wasn't. There were other _people_ here. Living here. Now I guess I really am alone. I'm the last." He breathed out deeply, watched his breath fog on the glass, and then thought of something that had been on his mind for a while. "Miranda. You never explained what your ship... the _Poseidon_, was doing 3 million light years into deep space."

Miranda shook her head. "I guess I never got a chance to explain before. We were on a routine mission. About six months in we passed through some kind of... disturbance. No-one really knew what it was, but the computer said it was a time hole. We found out that we'd jumped into the future. And... then we realized we could never go home. Not long after that we crashed." She looked away into the dark glass, avoiding his eyes.

"Well. What are the odds? Out of all the gin-joints in all the towns in all the universes you jumped into mine."

She laughed softly. "Something like that."

They shared a smile, and then Lister turned back to the window and examined the room beyond more closely. To his left was a glass door.

"Looks like a control room. If there's some records or files in there, we might be able to find out how these pods work."

"Why do you want to do that?"

He threw her an unsettled glance. "So we can figure out what went wrong."

* * *

A/N: Soooooooooooo sorry for the long wait between updates. Anyone who's still reading- you're totallyawesome in my book. Really. Stick with me, I promise to update more :):) 


	8. Survivors

**CHAPTER 6: Survivors**

Kryten leaned down close to the console, his fingers tapping rhythmically at the keyboard. A wire stretched out of his head and plugged into an open socket on an access panel on the mainframe, like an umbilical cord. Kryten had connected himself to the station's security network and was trying to find his way through the scrambled electrical signals to reach it's heart- the AI.

He felt he was getting closer.

After what seemed like hours (he was removed from the real world and had no sense of time or place; his conciousness was buried deep within the computer's network) Kryten managed to restore the computer. The monitor beside his head blinked on.

Kryten opened his eyes and, dazed, unplugged himself from the mainframe.

On the monitor before him was an image of a man- just a head- and although it was badly pixellated in areas, he got the general impression of a smooth, serene face, seemingly ageless and yet wise; its eyes a deep, calm blue.

Kryten blinked. The computer spoke.

"I am Jonah," it said in a slightly distorted, toneless voice.

"I am Kryten," the mechanoid replied courteously, though his voice held a hint of a question.

"You repaired me."

"Yes. My crewmates and I are from a ship called _Red Dwarf. _We want to know what happened here."

The man blinked slowly, and a blank smile crept over his face. "I will tell you all you want to know. But it will take time."

"I have time," Kryten said, favourably enough, and settled back into a kneeling position. "Please- tell me everything you know."

* * *

The young man stood beside the closed airlock door, staring into the opened maintenance panel. Sweat prickled his forehead. Behind him in the corridor, a blonde-haired woman sat leaning against the wall, hugging her knees, and swaying back and forth rhythimically. She was sobbing quietly to herself.

The sound of it was driving him insane.

"Kristin, will you _shut up? _I can't _think _when you're doing that."

The woman didn't seem to hear him- or didn't care; either way she kept on rocking back against the wall, her breath hitching in her throat. Tears streamed down her face under her thin-rimmed glasses. A younger man with dark blonde hair emerged from a nearby doorway, holding a tray.

"You don't have to talk to her like that," he said quietly, frowning at the other man with dark hazel eyes. He stepped out into the corridor next to Kristin.

"She's annoying me, that's all."

"She's in shock," the younger man replied coldly.

"She's been in shock for two smegging days," the other snapped, shooting a dark look over his shoulder. He had one hand resting on the door; now he lifted it and slammed it back against the metal with the side of a bunched fist. "I can't figure out this goddamn _door!"_

Kristin gave a little gasp. Her pale blonde hair hung over her face in long strands. Behind the glasses her eyes were sunken and had deep shadows under them. She hadn't slept since the accident.

None of them had.

"Just leave it then!" The guy with the tray said. His name was Adam Mcfarlin, he was twenty-four, and he was a Medical Technician aboard Genesis. The girl was Kristin Vanhorn, a Tech from the Cloning Labs. Her father and brother had both died in the explosion that ripped half the ship away.

Adam, and six other people had been trapped in the ship when the airlock doors automatically sealed them in; they were restricted to a short length of corridor, collapsed at one end, and with a sealed door at the other. Thank god they had access to the cafeteria, though.

Carefully, Adam crouched down beside Kristin and put the tray on the floor beside her. On it was a selection of food in microwave-safe containers, and a carton of milk that he had taken from the freezer. With most of the electrics gone, the freezer was useless anyway. The milk would spoil so they might as well drink it.

"You need to eat something," he said softly to the girl. She ignored him. Her face was pale and sickly-looking, and Adam was worried about her. "I mean it," he said more forcefully. "I'm not going away until you do."

Resolutely, he sat down against the wall beside her.

"You're wasting your time," the other man said dryly. "She's flipped."

"Will you cut it out!" Adam snapped. His blood pounded angrily in his temples, and he could feel a headache coming on. Wade was stressed, he knew- they all were. But there was no excuse for his callousness. "There are plenty of people who'd be lucky to be in your position right now, so I suggest you keep your opinions to yourself."

Wade Silman spun around, his green eyes glaring brightly under the spasmodic flicker of the hallway lights. "Oh really, _Doctor?" _Adam knew there was an argument coming on, but the sound of footsteps silenced them both.

"Why don't you leave that, Wade, I already tried it," said the man. Rodney Cross was in his early thirties, and his dark hair was already starting to recede, though his face still had the boyish quality of a man much younger. His brown eyes were serious, his mouth set in a sullen line.

"Yeah, well maybe you didn't try hard enough," Silman said, turning his back again, and facing the control panel.

Rodney's head leaned to one side in an exasperated way and he said, "I told you before. I deal with the lab computers… not security."

Wade simply sneered and muttered something that the others didn't catch. Wearily Rodney turned to Adam and the girl, who still hadn't touched her food. Her glasses were slipping off her face. She stopped rocking for a moment only to push them back up, and then resumed.

Rodney bit his lip. "We need to find another way," he said to Adam.

"Yeah. I know."

* * *

Lister walked slowly around the darkened control room, between the banks of desks and computer monitors. There were files everywhere, in stacks, lying in In-trays on the desks, and in drawers, and there were charts on the walls… but he didn't know what any of it meant. It might as well have been written in another language. He picked one sheaf of paper up from the floor- it was some kind of diagram, and there were some symbols he recognised, though they were drawn in a complex chart along with numbers and words that didn't make any sense to him.

C - Carbon

H - Hydrogen

O - Oxygen

P - Phosphorus

K - Potassium

I - Iodine

N - Nitrogen

S - Sulphur

Ca - Calcium

Fe - Iron

Na - Sodium

Cl - Chlorine

Mg - Magnesium

Mn - Manganese

Zn – Zinc

Lister gave a sigh and left the paper on a desk. "This is all gobbledegook," he said helplessly. Miranda was walking slowly around the room, staring at some of the charts on the walls, a small frown on her face.

"Wish I payed more attention in Science class," Lister mumbled. The Cat entered the room from the Cloning Bay, apparently as confused as the rest of them were. No, scratch that. WAY more confused.

"You find anything yet?" He asked impatiently, placing his hands on the hips of his gold spacesuit.

"We found plenty," Lister said wryly. "I just don't know what any of it _means."_

"So you don't know what went wrong with the thingga-ma-jiggies?"

"No."

"Oh." The Cat looked around despondently. "Well I'm gonna go see if I can find any food in this place. Anyone coming?"

Lister shook his head and scratched it. "I think I'll keep looking around here."

The Cat cast a cursory glance at Miranda, but she smiled and shook her head. He shrugged. "Your loss, babe," he said, and mooched out of the room. Lister leaned over one of the desks, looking in an In-tray that was stacked high with files. Miranda glanced out through the window into the Cloning Bay. She could see Rimmer wandering slowly among the pods down the far end of the room, his arms crossed over his chest. Even from here she could see him frowning, deep in thought

"Um… I'll just be…" she gestured towards the door. Lister raised his head, smiled, nodded once, and went back to the files. Miranda crossed the room and stepped back out into the large room, and then began to make her way through the giant pods, carefully avoiding the ominous green mist that billowed from them.

**A/N: **Yeah, I know I promised to update more often and I lied! lol. Acutally I took a break from this to focus on some other fanfiction, but I hope to keep these chapters coming more frequently. Thanks again, for reading… if you still are :)


	9. Musings of Life and Death

**CHAPTER 8: Musings of Life and Death**

"Genesis was a way to save the human race from extinction. It took many years, and the wealth of many nations to fund the project. But it was seen as a road to salvation. We would build a heavenly city in the stars, form a new society of perfect beings."

Kryten winced at the sentimentality of this, but Jonah continued, interrupting his thoughts.

"Our cloning technology was simplistic in those days. We needed to advance, to improve… to adapt to new methods. We tried different ways, but… inevitably the result was disappointing. Until we discovered the nanobots. We were still perfecting our research, when the attack came, but I believe we would have succeeded this time. We had found the way. Our clones were perfect.

"And then we were attacked by simulants. Somehow they found our location, passed too close to it, bypassing our hologrammatic shield. They brought an army down upon us and tore the station apart." Jonah's eyes seemed to darken, though his face still remained blank and emotionless. Kryten found it a little disturbing.

"Genesis was not designed to repel attacks. We have no offensive capabilities. When the explosion came, everyone had already abandoned the station, but they too were shot down as they tried to leave."

Kryten nodded in solemn silence. Jonah was watching him closely.

"You are wondering why the simulants didn't finish it. Why they left half the station intact."

"Yes."

"When the station blew apart, many of their ships were caught in the explosion, and they retreated. I have no doubt they will return, once we are long gone… to steal whatever remains of value."

* * *

Miranda found Rimmer in a small room separated from the main bay by a glass wall. A long, wide porthole spanned the opposite side of the room. There were more computers in here, and shelves full of test tubes in plastic holders, which she glanced at curiously, but didn't touch. Rimmer was leaning against a bench, facing the window. 

She walked around the bench and leaned against it, tucking her hands behind her back. Rimmer glanced up as she approached and she smiled; he replied with a smile of his own, but it was forced and looked painted on; unreal somehow. His metal 'H' glinted in the starlight seeping through the large porthole.

"Whatcha doing?" Miranda asked brightly.

Rimmer had one arm crossed over his chest, the other held his chin. Miranda remembered that famous statue, The Thinker- she realised Rimmer looked like that and her smile widened.

"Just… thinking…" Rimmer said with a small shake of his head, and she laughed. He looked at her, confused.

"Never mind," she said quickly, still grinning, and pushed herself off the bench. She stepped closer to the window. Rimmer stared at the back of her head, admiring the way the starlight framed her in a kind of gentle halo. He realised, at some point, she had taken her ponytail out, and he was glad. She looked better with her hair out.

Suddenly embarrassed, he cleared his throat and looked down at the ground.

"You're worried about me, aren't you?" Miranda said conversationally, and it took him by surprise. He raised his eyebrows and started to speak, but she continued. "You shouldn't. I don't want anyone to feel bad for me." She looked over her shoulder and Rimmer could see the pain in her eyes, but it was buried deep. She was making a great effort to conceal it. "I'm just glad I had a chance to see you guys again. Just for a little while."

Rimmer realised he should speak sometime soon, but he didn't really know what to say. He thought, _she's afraid to be turned off again, to go back to that nothingness… that non-existence. I know what that feels like. _"It's not very nice, is it?" He said in a flat voice.

She looked at him. "What?"

"Death."

Miranda smiled a little and shrugged. "It's not that bad." He said nothing, but his brow furrowed. "Don't you realise how lucky we are, Rimmer? Not many people get a second chance at life. We did. Out of thousands of people, we got chosen, for one reason or another." Her eyes glistened, and she pulled back. "We're the lucky ones, you and me."

Rimmer's face indicated that he didn't agree. He sat sullenly, looking down at his hands. Hands that weren't really his. He turned them over and examined the nails. "I never really understood, you know," he said despairingly, the words escaping his mouth in a flood. "I never _got it. _What the point was. I had goals- of course- to become an officer. To live up to my parents expectations. That was what drove me. I just had to make something of myself, to prove that I wasn't worthless." he paused, sadly. "But I never…. really _got _it." He frowned, staring hard out the window, as if there was an answer out there.

Miranda seemed to look at him very closely, and she then walked back to the bench to stand beside him. "Oh, Rimmer," she said gently. "You think you're the only who ever felt that way? Nobody's perfect. I know my life wasn't." She stared out into the distance, watching as pieces of debris floated eerily past the window in a spectral ballet. "I never felt like I belonged anywhere… that's why I followed Michael onto Poseidon. He was the only thing that really felt like home to me. I think he kind of resented it, the way I followed him everywhere, the way I depended on him all the time." Rimmer chanced a look at her face. There were tears on her lashes, threatening to fall, but she wiped them away defiantly. "But he never turned his back on me. He _always_ looked after me. Even though I was such a burden."

Rimmer said nothing for a long time. He felt awkward, and feared that any response he gave would sound careless or inadequate, so he said nothing. Beside him, Miranda sniffed quietly, constantly wiping away the tears before they could fall. She looked very young.

They sat in silence for a long time, a silence broken only by the electronic whirr of the pods in the room outside. Finally Rimmer glanced over at Miranda and said, in a voice stilted by embarrassment, "Well. What a pair of losers we make, eh?"

To his immense relief, she smiled and let out a burst of guilty laughter. He smiled, and she turned towards him, her head tilted to one side. "Not you." She leaned over and kissed him, lightly and very quickly on the cheek. Then she pushed herself off the bench swiftly and easily, and headed for the door, before Rimmer even had a chance to realize what had happened.

His hand went to his cheek and touched it instinctively, as if he could still feel the kiss there, and convince himself it was real and not just something he had imagined. Miranda paused at the door, looked back once, and smiled. Then she was gone.

Rimmer was suddenly aware of his heart beating very loudly and very fast in his own ears, and he sat motionless for a while, staring out the window. His hands had fallen into his lap. He raised one of them and let his fingers drift slowly over the metallic angles of the letter in the center of his forehead.

* * *

Kryten rose to his feet, having heard all that he needed to know. His knee joints creaked. He looked closely and speculatively at the pixellated face. "You were human once. I see it in your eyes." 

Jonah paused, watched Kryten for a long time, and then nodded slowly. "I was the project founder, I oversaw the construction of the ship, and the advancement of our technology. It took many years to reach here, long beyond my lifetime. When I died… they transferred my personality into the ship's computer so that I could continue to guide them."

Kryten stared at the monitor. "Well, pardon my bluntness, Mr. Jonah sir, but it doesn't look like your guidance amounted to squat." He winced inwardly. Lister's rebellion lessons were showing again. He made a mental note never to say _squat _again. "Your entire crew is dead. The human race is only one man short of extinction."

Jonah's pale, serene face flickered ominously. "No. It is already over. Armageddon has come, and I have failed. They are all dead."

"No, another remains," Kryten said emphatically. "His name is David Lister."

"He is as good as dead."

"What?" He leaned forward. "What do you mean by Armageddon?" At first he had thought the computer was just ranting, but something in Jonah's gaze held a truth to it.

"Destruction," Jonah said simply, and tonelessly. "The station will self-destruct in three hours."

Kryten jerked as if someone had attached jumper cables to his groinal socket. "Why didn't you tell me this before?" He said in a squeaky, panicked voice.

The computer tilted his head to one side in a quizzical gesture, and said, "You did not ask."

* * *

A/N: That was my favourite chapter so far, I hope you liked it as much as I enjoyed writing it:) 


	10. Salvation

**CHAPTER 9: Salvation**

The Cat wandered through the network of corridors leading off the Cloning Bay. Doors lined the walls but most of them were offices, more labs, or storage space. There was no sign of any food.

However, the Cat was guided by his nose, and his _nose_ told him there was food nearby. Even through the thick metal walls, he could smell it. The further away from the Cloning Bay he went, the stronger the smell became, and as he passed a door with a small wooden plaque marked "Dr. Bacus" he thought he could even determine what kind of food it was. Some kind of meat (not fish, he thought disappointedly), but perhaps beef. And there were vegetables too. The Cat's mouth started to water.

Quickening his pace, he strolled further down the corridor, and had hardly even noticed that the industrial grey walls of the laboratory area were gone, replaced by smooth, bright white paint. This seemed to be the administrative area; there were offices everywhere. He passed a water cooler, only giving it a perfunctory glance. Why stop for water when he could find the source of that meaty, vegetablely smell? Anyway, there was something else now, he could smell it… milk.

The Cat grinned and happily strode on towards the smell, pausing every so often to twitch his nose and determine the direction of the scent.

* * *

The five people were scattered around the cafeteria, some sitting at tables, on the service counter, or leaning against the wall. Every one of them was silent and sullen, their eyes downcast. They would raise them every so often to glance anxiously at each other. Only one of them was absent and that was Kristin, who had been moved to an office off the main corridor where a makeshift bed had been set up for her on a low couch. Adam had found some drugs in a supply cupboard in one of the offices and administered it, so that she could at least sleep for a while. 

Sleep… and forget.

The others were not so fortunate. They were now faced with certain death if they remained in this corridor; either by slow starvation or the return of the Simulants who had attacked the ship in the first place. Neither option was a pretty one. Now, worn and exhausted, they all stood or sat in the cafeteria, with absolutely no idea how to save themselves.

Finally it was the doctor, Dominic Bacus, who spoke. "Jonah controls all the airlock doors, doesn't he?" Dominic was 45, his dark hair was graying, and he had two day's worth of black stubble on his chin.

"Yeah," Rodney Cross said wearily, only because he was the resident 'computer geek' and everyone assumed he knew everything about the ship's security system. He didn't.

"And Jonah can't help us," Wade said from the other side of the room. He was sitting on the floor with his back leaning against a vending machine; all its lights had died and it looked forlorn and dull. Wade was eating a packet of biscuits that he had taken by smashing the glass on the front of the machine.

"Ok…" Dominic said, frowning and rubbing his chin.

"We're all gonna die," Wade said matter-of-factly, and crunched into another biscuit. Adam, who was sitting at one of the tables with his head in his hands, felt like punching him, but instead he just curled his fingers tightly in his dark blonde hair and tried to ignore him.

"Stop saying that," one of the women said menacingly. Her name was Rosanna, and like Kristin and Wade, she worked in the Cloning Labs. "If you say that one more time I'm going to throw something at you."

"Go ahead," the man retorted with a weary smile. "No, I got a better idea. Kill me now so I won't be around when the simulants come back. I don't wanna be around for that." His eyes glinted darkly.

"You will be, you asshole," Rosanna said cuttingly, "because when we find a way out of here we're leaving you behind."

Wade just stared at her, long and hard, and slowly scrunched up the biscuit packet he had been holding. He threw it at her but it fluttered harmlessly to the ground. He wrenched himself to his feet and stalked out of the room.

"Going to try the door again," he muttered on the way out.

* * *

The Cat froze in mid-step. He was halfway down a hallway that ended in a closed airlock door, and he could have sworn he heard voices. More importantly, though… there was _definitely_ food on the other side of that door. He approached it carefully, cautiously, his nose hairs quivering. 

There was a perfectly circular, glass window set into the door, and as he approached it he could see, through his own reflection, a short stretch of corridor on the other side, and a large open room that seemed to be a cafeteria of some sort; he could only see into it a few feet, though. Suddenly he leaped back, surprised, as a man exited the cafeteria and walked right towards him, towards the door. His head was hanging down and he was frowning.

The Cat held up a gloved hand (he was still wearing his gold spacesuit) and waved experimentally. "Hey, Buddy!" He said loudly.

The man on the other side of the glass froze, and his head jerked up as if being yanked by an invisible string. He stared out through the window at the smiling figure and his green eyes widened with shock. Finally he opened his mouth and said, dazedly, "Smegging hell!"

His voice was muffled by the glass and the door, but the Cat still heard it, and his grin widened. He waited for the man to open the door.

Instead, the guy twirled around like a ballerina and ran straight back into the room he had just exited, which the Cat thought was extremely rude. The grin sunk off his face. "Hey! Where'd you get your manners, Bud? Off the back of a cereal packet?" He stepped up to the door, intending to open it and follow the man, but at that moment a group of people began pouring out of the cafeteria, and he stopped again, warily.

One of the people, a pretty lady with dark hair, pressed her face up to the window. There were tears in her eyes.

"Thank God! Get us out! Please- you have to help us!" She was shouting.

* * *

Lister was still looking at the files when Miranda joined him in the control room. He was idly chewing the end of one his dreadlocks, she noted- something she had never seen him do before. He was clearly very tired and anxious. 

"No luck?" She asked, unnecessarily, leaning against the doorframe.

"Nah," he said, and let the piece of paper drift back down on top of the pile. "I don't understand a word of it. Kryten might, though- I'll get him to have a look once he gets back.

"Have you tried talking to him through the head…phone…thingies?" She said, embarrassed, not knowing what to call them.

Lister just nodded and rubbed the back of his neck as if he had an ache there. "Yeah… there was no response. I think we're out of range or something." He noticed the slightly worried look on Miranda's face and added, quickly, "He'll be back soon though."

He put his hands on his hips, examining her, and said nonchalantly, "Talking to Rimmer, were you?"

She smiled, and he thought she might have blushed slightly… but it was hard to tell in the dim light. "Yep."

He nodded and returned the smile, trying not to look too interested one way or the other, and made a move towards the door. "We better go wait for Kryts then, I s'pose."

Miranda stepped out of the doorway to let him past, and they walked together back across the Cloning Bay, their skin tinged green by the light emanating from the pods.

"You like him," Miranda said abruptly, and it took Lister a moment to catch up.

"'Ey?" He said stupidly.

"That's why you left him on," She said brightly, glancing at him sideways. "Isn't it?"

"I guess," Lister said reluctantly, after a moment's pause. "But the thing is... the thing about Rimmer... you haven't known him that long. But he's a really hard guy to like. To be honest, he's a complete smeg'ead sometimes."

"Yeah, you mentioned that," she said, smiling. Then her face grew sad. "But don't be too hard on him." Her eyes pleaded silently with him. "He's nice inside. All the rest of it... it's just a wall."

Lister looked at her for a long time, and shrugged. "Yeah, maybe."

"You've got to stay together, all of you. No matter what happens."

He looked at her, surprised. "What're you talking like that for?"

She shrugged, silently. the movement seemed to take a lot effort. "Just look out for each other. That's all."

"Hey! We're the Boys from the Dwarf," he said with a reassuring grin. Then, more serious, he looped an affectionate arm around her shoulders. "And we'll look out for you, too. So don't worry."

Miranda smiled, but didn't look at him. In the light from the cloning pods her eyes seemed impossibly green, and radiant. He didn't see the sorrow hidden behind them, because she had turned her face away.


End file.
